HUMANIZED LANDSCAPES #063

Sanfins de Ferreira, Paços de Ferreira, Portugal

6720 × 4480

Humanized Landscapes How it Started

It all started around April, when I received a zoom call inviting me to be part of the ALDEAR project. ALDEAR is a community project, which purpose is to develop the rural villages covered by it, creating community cultural projects, preserving traditions and local memories. In this project, my role was to carry out the photographic and video graphic coverage of this event, as well as all the rehearsals of the artistic projects. This project took place in 10 villages, Salvador do Monte, Teixeira, Folgoso, Arnoia, Nespereira, Jugueiros, Freixo, Bustelo, Luzim and Vila Cova e Talhada. It was 5 months of intense travelling, getting to know stories, meeting people, discovering memories. And I quickly realised that I had a golden opportunity to go deeper into these places. I started talking to people, getting to know their stories, their traditions, their memories. In the ALDEAR project there was neither time nor space to tell these stories, so I took advantage of the little time I had to record them, to tell them. And so the HUMANIZED LANDSCAPES project was born

The Concept

The concept is simple. To take these 10 rural villages and portray their people, their communities, their memories, their culture and traditions. I took it as a personal mission. To give you these forgotten stories, these lost traditions. This is one of my biggest projects yet. This was the project that kept me away for this community for 5 months, and now i'm ready to show it to you. After this project i found my place in photography, I now know what i need to photograph. I need to tell stories, to preserve traditions. I'm a collector of memories. By collecting one or more pieces you are keeping these memories alive, you are being part of their story, my story. And you are helping me to continue to collect memories.